Soliciting help from the World Bank Group and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to reduce poverty in Jamaica is not a bad strategy being adopted by the Government.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in making his Administration’s intention known to World Bank President Mr Ajay Banga and his IDB counterpart Mr Ilan Goldfajn last week, acknowledged that both international financial institutions have experience, knowledge, know-how, and the financial resources to support programmes dedicated to poverty reduction.

Mr Holness disclosed that in an effort to further cut poverty in Jamaica, which is said to have declined to 12.6 per cent in 2022 from an estimated 23 per cent in 2020, the Government will be moving to reform the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) under which welfare benefits are distributed with the help of the multilateral financiers.

Mr Holness did not give details about that planned reform. However, we note that Mr Banga, while endorsing the prime minister’s objective, made it clear that reducing poverty will require more than enlisting the help of the World Bank and the IDB, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact.

According to Mr Banga, “…poverty, having taken a sort of setback for the last four or five years, leads to a conclusion that, no matter what we do over the next few years, there is not enough money in the multilateral banking system, in the generosity of governments, or in the generosity of philanthropists, to take on the level of challenge that we all face in our individual spaces”.

Against that background, he suggested private sector involvement — through capital, innovation, and energy — to work with governments and multilateral institutions “to make a difference to not just poverty, but living”.

For decades Jamaica has enjoyed strong partnerships with the World Bank and the IDB resulting in billions of dollars in support through a wide range of programmes across almost every sector.

The same can be said for other international agencies and friendly governments.

Add to those Jamaicans in the diaspora and individuals of means who spare no effort to help institutions and people in need and you get a picture of a country that has truly benefited from the milk of human kindness.

Jamaica has extended assistance and support to other countries, particularly in times of great need. However, the assistance we have offered cannot compare to what we have received.

We don’t expect that poverty will be totally eliminated from the world and, while we do not read into Mr Banga’s comments a reduction of assistance from the World Bank, we yearn for the day when our approaches to international institutions for help will be only very occasional at most.

We yearn for the day when Jamaica is so productive, so well-managed and organised that it can stand proudly as an economically independent country with poverty so minimal it will be hardly noticed.

We dream of our land as a donor nation, ever willing and able to help others rather than constantly receiving — a nation offering expertise in technology, infrastructure growth, educational and financial support, development of human and social capital, etc.

It’s an ideal worth striving for, and we should not be intimidated by its scale.